CJ Costello had 2 interceptions against the Rocky Mountain College Bears in the Jimmies '12 opener

The post-op analysis from coach Shawn Frank following Friday's 38-19 season-opening loss to Rocky Mountain College was honest, but upbeat. In short, most everything is fixable.

The Jimmies trailed only 3-0 after one quarter, but things quickly snowballed in the second.

The Jimmies outscored Rocky Mountain 12-7 in the second half and that's where Frank and the Jimmies pick up.

"We've put that one to bed and we're moving on," he said. "The nice thing is 99 percent of the mistakes we made are correctable. The world wasn't made in a day and we never claimed to be a finished product.

"But at the same time, we have to make the corrections and improve. We can't just say it, we have to do it on the practice field and that's where our focus is this week."

The Jimmies have another tough, well-established program looming as the Concordia Cobbers out of the always tough NCAA Division III MIAC come calling Saturday at Rollie Greeno Field.

"One of the clichés you always hear from coaches is how a team makes their biggest improvement from the first game to the second. For us, with the way we started, that is extremely important," Frank said.

After the ragged second quarter Friday against Rocky Mountain, they did settle in and were better on both sides of the ball.

The main problem defensively was alignment issues in the back end.

"It's a matter of reading your keys, lining up in the right spot and executing what we had been doing previously in practice all week," Frank said. "I'm not going to single anybody out, we just have to be better mentally and physically on Saturday."

There were bright spots. The Jimmies forced four turnovers, senior safety C.J. Costello had two interceptions. The offense also found a better rhythm in the second half behind sophomore quarterback Gus Ramasco, who completed 17 of 32 attempts, but was under pressure often, especially early. He was sacked seven times. Freshman D'Marco Smith made an impressive debut with 52 yards on just nine carries.

"I thought our guys showed tremendous resolve. They didn't pack it in when we got down," Frank said. "Once we got into the flow of the game, we did some good things.

"Going forward it's critical that we don't peak and valley and we have a more flatline approach. … Our guys are excited to get back to practice and are looking forward to playing on our home field."